Dalton: Rural nature at heart of races

By RALPH BARTHOLDT

Staff Writer

A recall election last spring unseated three Dalton Gardens council members, including the mayor, leaving the body without a quorum and unable to do business.

Despite an appointment to the council by the governor, and the filling of the remaining seats last summer, a deep distrust of how the city was doing business has resulted in a large field of Dalton residents vying for the four council seats: two 2-year and two 4-year terms. The two leading vote getters in the two-year races, and the two leading voter getters in the four-year races, will be the winners.

Nine candidates will appear on the ballot for the four positions.

There is no contest for mayor. The current mayor, Jeff Fletcher, opted not to run again, and 49-year-old Dan Edwards is the only candidate on the ballot.

Issues affecting the city include a push for transparency at the city level, whether the city of 2,400 needs more policing, and how to safely deal with increasing traffic.

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Carrie Chase

A Dalton resident for 16 years, Carrie Chase is running for a 2-year council seat on a platform to keep Dalton Gardens rural by reducing traffic.

“I believe that drastically reducing through traffic will lessen the need for additional law enforcement,” Chase said in an email to The Press.

Chase said she agrees with community members who recommend adding stop signs, reducing lane widths, adding speed bumps and radar signs to control traffic and increasing safety.

“These should be considered as measured, progressive efforts to reducing traffic and accompanying problems,” she said. “I am open to suggestions from Dalton Gardens residents.”

Chase said the past council — two of its members were unseated, along with the mayor, in a March recall election — created an environment of distrust and division. If elected, Chase said she will represent the town’s residents, not outside interests.

“There is a widespread belief that council has represented outside special interests to the detriment of residents here,” she said.

A move to accept a $4.5 million federal grant without voter approval to widen Fourth Street and add sidewalks and curbs, which many Dalton residents thought would attract more traffic, and allowing Wilbur Avenue to be a through street, are among examples Chase cited as not being popular with community members.

“Dalton Gardens is a residential community that should be operated for the benefit of residents, not outside interests,” she said.

Chase is 22-year business owner who with her husband of 30 years raised her children in Dalton Gardens.

“(We) especially enjoy the rural lifestyle of gardening, raising livestock, biking, hiking, camping and swimming in the nearby lakes,” she said.

Chase has been active in 4-H and Bible Study Fellowship.

Ray Craft

Ray Craft will tell you up front that he has never run for city office and that his administrative experience is limited.

The former logger and logging truck driver who moved to North Idaho after leaving the military as a member of the 82nd Airborne Division began working in Idaho’s timber industry in 1971. He moved 11 years ago to Dalton Gardens from Rathdrum, where he and his family had lived for almost 40 years.

Keeping a logging business operational, in the black and functioning efficiently for several decades is as close as he has come to managing a substantial budget.

His practical experience is applicable and his knowledge of what makes Dalton Gardens tick is at the heart of his desire to run for a 2-year council term, he said.

Even in the 1970s, Craft said, Fourth Street, which connects Coeur d’Alene to Hayden via Dalton Gardens, was a main thoroughfare used by a lot of motorists.

“I used it too,” he said.

Traffic counts have jumped in recent years, however, and the number of vehicles on all of Dalton Gardens’ narrow residential streets has changed the community from a safe place to take a walk or ride a bicycle, to one where pedestrians are always on the lookout for speeding motorists in a hurry to get somewhere, he said.

“Traffic is my No. 1 concern,” Craft said.

If he is elected, he said, he will work with the council and community members to find a solution that would make Dalton Gardens a less desirable place for motorists to use as a shortcut.

That could mean adding four-way stop signs in residential areas, beacons and crosswalks on Fourth Street and more policing.

“That is where a lot of our safety issues come from,” he said. “The volume of traffic and the speed.”

In addition, Craft said, as a community resident he learned the importance of communication and how the lack of transparency can result in a train wreck. This year’s Dalton Gardens recall election was the result, Craft said, of a community that had lost faith in a council that did not take the advice of voters.

Craft said he would add to the city’s online presence a mailed newsletter outlining council activities.

“We have 997 homes in Dalton and it costs $190 to mail out flyers,” he said. “That’s a relatively cheap way to keep people informed.”

Kenneth Egbert

When Kenneth Egbert in June opted to apply for a vacant 2-year seat on the Dalton Gardens City Council, he wanted to bring unity to a council fractured by a recent recall election.

Egbert anticipated joining the board to help get the city’s wheels churning in a positive way, and to give back to a community he has called home for 27 years.

“I want to help get Dalton Gardens reunified from the unfortunate position it’s in because of the recall,” Egbert said.

Egbert, a retired IT administrator from Spokane’s public schools who for almost a decade ran a contracting business with his son, was selected by the mayor for the vacant seat he has occupied since summer.

After several months on the job, Egbert was part of a vote to turn away more than $4 million in federal money to rebuild Fourth Street because it was an unpopular measure among voters, he said, and an important step to rebuilding a bridge between residents and City Hall.

The confidence of voters in city government, Egbert said, was at an all-time low, resulting in the recall election that stymied decisions for several months as council vacancies were slowly filled.

Even with the newly filled seats, candidates had to learn how the council functioned, and council members had to win back the confidence of residents by engaging voters, being transparent and earning their trust, he said.

Egbert said turning away federal funds to pay for street improvements was a difficult decision from a financial aspect, but because voters wanted it, and it would ensure maintaining Dalton Gardens’ rural nature, he voted to not accept the grant and its condition that sidewalks and walking paths be built.

“I believe it was a very poor financial decision,” Egbert said. “(But) it was the right decision for Dalton.”

After four months on the job, earning voter trust is still on top of his to-do list. Continual transparency is the key to rebuilding voter support.

“If I am elected,” he said, “I pledge to provide open and transparent and low-cost government. I will listen to voter concerns and take appropriate action.”

Egbert also said the city needs more law enforcement and that the current agreement with the sheriff’s office “has produced mixed results.”

The city may have to spend more for more consistent law enforcement, he said, and it may consider asking another entity to patrol within city limits.

Tyler Drechsel

In his eight months on the Dalton Gardens City Council, Tyler Drechsel has voted to turn down — at voter request — more than $4 million in grant funds to modernize Fourth Street. He has suggested conducting traffic studies to learn how to slow down cars and trucks in the town’s residential neighborhoods, explored ways to pay for more policing in the community of 2,400 residents and sought ways to increase transparency at City Hall.

Drechsel, the fire marshal for the Northern Lakes Fire District, makes no bones about his dedication to the town where he lives and where he wants to continue to serve as a council member.

“I can be trusted,” Drechsel said. “What I say is what I’ll do.”

Drechsel, who is running for one of two 2-year terms on the City Council, was appointed last spring by the governor’s office after a shake-up early this year at City Hall regarding an illegal subdivision, and a push to modernize Fourth Street, the city’s main north south street that bisects residential areas. The recall left Dalton Gardens without a mayor and two council members.

A fourth-generation Idahoan and lifetime Kootenai County resident, Drechsel threw his hat into the ring in an effort to bring stability and transparency to city government.

“As a council member, my goal is to be fiscally responsible, and to get better at communication,’ Drechsel said. “My job as a council member is to represent the concerns of the taxpayers.”

Consulting residents before decisions are made and encouraging the community to participate are priorities.

“We want to be conscientious and transparent with the decisions we make,” he said.

Being pressed between the two rapidly growing communities of Coeur d’Alene and Hayden has resulted in a push from the outside to change Dalton Gardens’ rural fabric. As a council member, Drechsel said, he will ensure the town remains residential and rural.

“We have the ability to control growth in our rural city,” he said.

By enforcing codes, frontage requirements, zoning and setbacks, Drechsel said, the city can maintain its identity and rural aesthetic.

“We don’t want to see population growth,” Drechsel said. “We don’t want to see multiple houses on lots. We want to keep Dalton Gardens the desirable community it is today.”